Monday, February 15, 2010

John Paul II refers woman to Pius XII

Has anyone been following this bizarre story out of Italy regarding a potential miracle for Pope Pius XII?

I say bizarre because it involves another candidate for beatification: John Paul II.

Here is an excerpt from the story, which was featured on January 19th on CNA:

In 2005, a teacher of 31 years of age was expecting her third child in the city of Castellammare di Stabia. She began to have strong pains, which after many tests and a biopsy, signaled the presence of Burkitt's lymphoma. The condition is typified by swollen lymph nodes, often starting in the abdominal region, and the cancer can spread to bone marrow and spinal fluid. Not only was her health in danger, but that of her unborn child was also threatened.

The woman's husband first prayed for the intercession Pope John Paul II, who was then only recently buried in the crypt of St. Peter's. It wasn't long before the Holy Father appeared to the woman's husband in a dream. The spouse described to Tornielli what he saw that night, "He had a serious face. He said to me, 'I can't do anything, you must pray to this other priest...' He showed me the image of a thin, tall, lean priest. I didn't recognize him; I didn't know who he might be."

Several days passed before he, "by chance," came across a picture of Pope Pius XII in a magazine and recognized him as the man John Paul II had shown him in the dream.

The man wasted no time in bombarding Pius XII with prayers for his wife's healing and following her very first treatments she was declared free of the cancer, the tumor had disappeared. In fact, she was cured so quickly that her doctors pondered the notion that they may have originally misdiagnosed the pathology.

This is a truly amazing story. If it is true, I don't know how it will affect the Cause for John Paul II - I'm assuming not in a positive way. Usually in Catholic history, when one appears in a vision with a "serious face" and says they are incapable of doing anything, it means they are in Purgatory.

Does John Paul's instructions for the woman to pray to Pius XII instead suggest that John Paul II would rather see Pius XII raised to the altars in place of himself?


Click here to read the full article from CNS

3 comments:

Matt said...

Could you give examples of other cases of people appearing "with a serious face" and referring to others? Granted, I don't think anyone in Heaven would have a "serious face".

Anonymous said...

Monday, February 15, 2010
John Paul II refers woman to Pius XII

Hello Boniface I heard on an interview a catholic writer was giving on her book about Purgatory that apperently a Pope who everybody thought of as saint was said to be purgatory.

Just curious if you know or heard anything else because when I heard this I and then I read your post on your blog regarding JPII I thought of this interview.

I thought either was John XXIII or JPII.

I hope to hear from you.

Boniface said...

Anonymous-

I don't know of any other cases like this, so I'm afraid I can't comment on it. If you find out more about what you were referring to, let me know please!

Boniface